Enshrinement as a God

Agong, as instructed by the Butterfly Scholar, examined the area around the rock that the Butterfly Scholar had struck with his palm.

"My goodness..."

Looking closely, the part of the rock where the Butterfly Scholar's hand had touched was full of numerous handprints and what looked like fingernail marks.

It showed how much he had struggled to get out of here.

In particular, the part that the Butterfly Scholar had pointed to had been struck with his palm several times, and numerous handprints were overlapping. Along the handprints, dozens of hairline cracks were extending towards the rock like river streams heading to the sea.

Agong, who had heard that the martial arts of those who fell into the prison were completely abolished, could not even imagine how great the Butterfly Scholar's original martial prowess must have been, if this was the level of the Butterfly Scholar who had lost his martial arts.

'Can martial artists really break rocks so easily...'

At that thought, Agong was suddenly overcome with a sense of self-pity.

He felt sad for himself, who had received the teachings of his masters who had talked about the greatness of their martial arts until his ears were calloused, yet had such insignificant skills.

'Could it be that what I learned is really only at that level of martial arts...?'

Looking back, the lightness skill and footwork were taught by Cook Li, the cook of the tavern, to help with hunting, and he had learned the martial arts used for fishing from Tongtian, one of his masters.

Although he himself said that the Nine Gates True Scripture he had learned from the True Man Lingbao was great, the True Man Lingbao was a person who would say it was great even if he had taught him the Three Talents Sword, which even a commoner could display.

'Could it be that they're really just playing with me?'

Where in the world was there a master who would accept a disciple and then drop him into a place of certain death like this?

Agong, once a doubt arose, shook his head violently at the complex feelings that were rushing in uncontrollably.

"No matter how strong and hard an opponent is on the outside, if you attack its core, you can easily break even a rock as if you were crushing tofu, and you can easily subdue even a powerful enemy as if you were handling a child."

Although the Butterfly Scholar was teaching Agong to save himself, this was the essence and insight of his unique martial art, the Heaven and Earth Fist.

If Agong had achieved a certain level of study, he would have achieved a great awakening from the Butterfly Scholar's teachings, but unfortunately, his level and enlightenment were still too low for Agong to accept.

Moreover, since he was now listening to the Butterfly Scholar's words with one ear and letting them out the other due to other thoughts, it was a matter that martial artists who knew this value would beat their chests and be greatly angered.

"If I attack the lower part of the rock from here and you apply appropriate force to the rock's blood vessels at the right time, you will be able to get me out of this rock without applying much force."

After the Butterfly Scholar's explanation, Agong stared at him.

It was a statement that was not easily believable, and it was good that he had explained it diligently, but he had not told him the important part.

"What are you doing?"

"You have to tell me where that blood vessel is."

"Hmm..."

The Butterfly Scholar, seeing Agong who did not even move an eyebrow after receiving the teachings of a supreme martial art, had a feeling of 'don't tell me', but hearing Agong's answer, he could not hide his renewed disappointment and bewilderment.

But he couldn't complain that he had really caught a straw in a situation where he had to catch even a straw.

"If you follow the grain spread out on the rock, you will see the parts where it is bent and clumped. You must strike that very spot with all your might."

"With all my might..."

The part that the Butterfly Scholar had explained came into Agong's eyes, at a position higher than his head.

Agong was quite exhausted, and it was hard to easily believe the Butterfly Scholar's words, but he was not so cold-hearted as to refuse the request of the man crushed by the rock in one go.

Agong first carefully placed Tonglin in a position where the Butterfly Scholar's hand could not reach, and also gently placed the basket slung over his shoulder next to it.

"Phew..."

Since he had asked him to do it with all his might, Agong was planning to grant the Butterfly Scholar's request with all his might.

And among the martial arts that Agong had practiced, there was only one that he could display with the most confidence.

Agong, recalling the Heavenly Demon Hand that Tongtian had shown him before, slowly circulated the internal energy of his whole body.

From the tips of his toes to the tips of his fingers.

It was a single strike that the exhausted Agong could do with all his might.

The energy flowing through his eight extraordinary meridians flowed along with Agong's movements with the momentum of a raging wave, with a single goal.

"Hmm!"

The Butterfly Scholar let out a small sigh at Agong's body movements, which were moving slowly from the ready stance.

The footwork was strange, and the momentum it exuded contained the momentum of the righteous path, so it was strange and its identity was hard to know.

But unlike when he was brandishing a long pole, the appearance from the ready stance to the strike was a movement that no one who had been in the Sea Isle Sect for even a short time could ever forget.

"Heavenly Demon Hand..."

It was clearly because of this that he had felt the energy of a familiar supreme martial art from the appearance of Agong brandishing the pole for some reason.

The Butterfly Scholar, while surprised by the unexpected martial art, did not let his mind waver. He was not a person who would let this opportunity go to waste.

Crash!

At the same time as Agong flew his body in one go and threw a palm strike, the Butterfly Scholar also raised his internal energy and struck the rock with all his might.

As the two's palm strikes were displayed perfectly at the same time, a single impact sound scattered in the arena.

Crack!

Agong, who had landed on the ground, clearly felt a vivid sensation of something breaking at his fingertips.

Unbelievably, from the end of the rock where Agong had thrown a palm strike to the bottom of the rock where the Butterfly Scholar was crushed, dirt and stone dust flew up and began to collapse.

Thump! Crack!

The rock, with a dull sound, began to collapse into dozens of pieces, unable to maintain its shape.

"Kuhahaha!"

The Butterfly Scholar, without caring about the rock fragments falling and rolling around him, burst into a triumphant laugh.

The Butterfly Scholar's pants, which had come out from under the rock, were all worn out, and perhaps due to the effect of the rock crushing and mashing him for a long time, the part of his pants below the knee was flat, as if there was nothing there.

But the Butterfly Scholar, as if he didn't care, raised his body with both arms and did not stop laughing, as if enjoying his freedom after years.

"Finally... finally I can get out of this damn place."

The Butterfly Scholar, as he moved his muscles after a long time, felt a severe pain and frowned.

But even that pain was a sensation that made him feel alive. There was nothing that could cover his current joy and excitement.

"Are you okay?"

Agong, worried about the Butterfly Scholar who was covered in dust and laughing like a madman, asked carefully.

The Butterfly Scholar, who had been letting out a mad laugh for a while, composed his breathing as if he were out of breath and calmed his excitement.

Just because he had come out from under the rock did not mean that he had escaped this hellish place.

"Thank you. If it weren't for you, I would have surely died here."

"Ah... well... don't mention it."

"Since you've helped me anyway, would you mind guarding me for half a quarter of an hour?"

"Guard you?"

"I'm asking you."

The Butterfly Scholar, before even hearing Agong's answer, cut off his shattered leg with his long fingernails without any hesitation. After tying the end of his pants and pressing the acupoints to stop the bleeding in one go, he sat cross-legged with his leg that was only left up to the knee.

Agong, seeing the Butterfly Scholar who had started to circulate his energy with his face contorted in pain, made a troubled expression and held the basket and Tonglin that he had put aside for a moment.

He had heard well while practicing martial arts how vulnerable a person who was circulating their energy was to an attack.

Agong, having no choice, held Tonglin and slowly looked around.

Fortunately, during the half a quarter of an hour, not even a single ant came near Agong and the Butterfly Scholar.

Thanks to that, Agong was able to look around every corner of the surroundings, unintentionally, while trying hard to avoid looking at the corpses of the dog monsters he had killed.

In addition to the entrance where he had been chased by the dog monsters, a place that looked like an exit first came into Agong's eyes.

And on one side of the wide arena, the scattered bones that looked like the bones of dog monsters and the bones with thick joints that were too thick to be those of dog monsters also came into his eyes.

Seeing that the bones that looked like human bones were not intact, a terrible scene was imagined in his head, but Agong held his head to quickly chase away such thoughts.

"Kuh... cough!"

As the promised time passed, the Butterfly Scholar let out a short groan, vomited a mouthful of blood, and contorted his face in pain.

Seeing a young despair in his expression, Agong cautiously approached the Butterfly Scholar.

"Are you really okay?"

The Butterfly Scholar rubbed his trembling eyelids with the back of his hand and looked up at Agong with his bloodshot eyes.

"Are you a disciple of the Tongtian Cult Master?"

"Old man Tong... Master?"

Agong hurriedly changed the title he was about to say, 'grandpa', to 'master'.

The Butterfly Scholar, as if it were the answer he had expected, examined Agong with a strange expression.

"Indeed... has the Tongtian Cult Master taken a disciple since I was imprisoned?"

Although he still didn't know how Agong had come to the Hermit's Valley, what was important to him was the fact that Agong was a disciple of the Tongtian Cult Master, the leader of the Sea Isle Sect.

Since it was the Tongtian Cult Master of the Sea Isle Sect and the elders and the Ten Heavenly Lords he had belonged to who had put him in this state, Agong could also be called a disciple of his enemy.

But to kill him at once, the Butterfly Scholar was in a state where he could not use his martial arts completely.

The fact that he had painfully realized just before while circulating his energy was the reality that he could not use any martial arts other than the Crouching Frog Art in the future.

Moreover, the Butterfly Scholar was in a situation where he owed his life to Agong.

To repay a life-saving grace with enmity was something that only an evil heretic would do, and it was something that any great master would be ashamed of.

'To be a disciple of the Tongtian Cult Master, the Heavenly Demon Hand he displays does not seem to be the complete Manifest Demon True Art, and the level of his martial arts is too low. Could it be that he was abandoned here for that reason?'

If it were the Heavenly Demon Hand in his memory, not only the rock but also himself under the rock would have been swept away in one palm strike.

Agong, watching the Butterfly Scholar's ever-changing expression, waited for his words.

"How did you come to be here? Did the Tongtian Cult Master send you here?"

Even though he had given him food and helped him, Agong's mood soured a little at being repeatedly questioned as if he were being interrogated, but he couldn't get angry seeing the Butterfly Scholar's current state.

"Do you think I would have come to a place like this just because he sent me? Old man Tong... no, Master suddenly pushed me here, so I fell."

"He suddenly pushed you?"

"Yes, he just said he would see me at the exit and then pushed me."

Agong, once his mouth was opened, could not overcome his anger towards Tongtian, who had tricked him, and told him in detail the story of visiting the fishing spot with Tongtian and being pushed into the prison.

Of course, in detail about the absurdity and betrayal that Agong had felt.

"If he was going to do this just because I became his disciple, I would never have become his disciple!"

The Butterfly Scholar felt confused at Agong's words, but he did not think for a moment that Agong was lying.

In the first place, Agong did not look cunning enough to deceive him with such a story, and there was no reason for him to do so.

'In the first place, who would have thought that someone was alive in the prison...'

This was the territory of the dog monsters, but if he left this place, he didn't know what else was waiting in the prison.

No matter how great a martial artist of the martial world he was, the reason why not a single person who had had their martial arts completely abolished had ever left the prison alive was because of that.

Although their numbers were not large, the martial arts masters of the Sea Isle Sect who had been thrown into the Hermit's Valley had all met a miserable end for the reason that they were criminals.

Grind!

The Butterfly Scholar, thinking that if the heavens had not helped him, he would have become food for the beasts while still alive, felt a surge of anger.

"But, Scholar... why are you here?"

"Because I fell into a trap."

"A trap?"

The Butterfly Scholar looked at Agong blankly.

"Do you know the Non-Duality Gate?"

"The Non-Duality Gate... you mean where Master Sorin and Miss Mu are..."

"Miss Mu... you know that demonic woman."

In Agong's memory, Miss Mu was too frighteningly beautiful to be called a demon.

Strangely, he couldn't remember her face well, but she was a young lady who exuded a strong smell of grass that made his nose tingle.

"The one who trapped me was that woman... no, something in the form of a woman."

(End of Chapter)